Saturday, October 03, 2015

Wars and Lechery

Part of the genesis of this post was a leftover image from the "Philippine Sea" writeup. I went looking for "WW2 Imperial Navy poster" and found this:

Which I thought was perfect; ships, flags, pretty pin-up girl...there you have your basic "Join the Navy, see the world and get laid" appeal that had probably been a central feature of every recruiter's spiel since the first Sumerian sergeant told lies to a bunch of dumb hicks straight off the farm.

The thing is...one of the other images Google showed me was this one:

Wrong country, right period, but...damn. Talk about a different way of looking at the whole "guns/girls" thing.

I find it hard to believe that even in 1944 an 18-year-old Japanese kid, male or female, had instincts much different than an American teenager. Different manners and mores, yes, but the hormones? Right in there pitching. Look at a picture of a pretty girl? He's thinking "I'd like to get next to that..." (and she's probably thinking "I'd like to be that so he will want to get next to me...").

But the WAVE practically radiates sex - she's a Petty pin-up, y'think..? - as opposed to the very G-rated patriotic Japanese gal in the IJN poster. No wonder so many other cultures think we're obsessed with our genitals.

Not that I think we really are - I think ALL humans spend tons of time thinking about putting Tab A into Slot B. Americans are just more upfront about it and it seems were were seventy years ago, too.

Moreover, it's interesting that the sexy WAVE poster is pitched at WOMEN. It's not like Rosie the Riveter, hair up in a do-rag, doing her work. This is a come-hither look from a women, to a woman, no?

Also, per the tentacles, did you see the recent NYT piece on the "tentacles in the hair" craze? Oh, in Japan, of course. Me and women wearing hair pins that swivel up like tentacles, tho' the piece called them "fruited" or woodsy pieces.

Aside from the obvious Carmen Miranda bits, they looked like tentacles to me. Positively obscene!

Lisa: I think that - while the WAVE is technically beckoning to her sisters - the important subtext is to their fathers, brothers, husbands, and male friends; we may be sailors but we're GIRL sailors. Still women, sexy, huggable, American women. We're not going to turn your daughter/sister/wife into some sort of dyke with short hair and a Rosie-the-Riveter girlfriend. And the same message is being broadcast to the potential recruits; you can be a WAVE and still be desirable, cute, sexy. We won't shave your head and put in in a barracks with a bunch of bull daggers who'll rape you.

At least, that seems to be the theory behind these ads, I think...

Hair-tentacles? WTF? The Japanese have some very, very strange fads...

Yes, I agree with you about the message being pitched to the men: Don't worry about the lady folks losing their comely attributes. These will only be enhanced via proximity to your androgens.

Of course, the few women I've met who entered service during that time started out a bit, "buff", if you will. (Of course, my mother' step-mother drove a forklift in the Brooklyn Naval Yards in WW II, but that's another matter.

The hair tentacles are very odd, indeed. Isn't it amazing how DIFFERENT cultures can be?!? I don't think U.S. men, well, straight U.S. men, would wear hair tentacles. Maybe that's cos we can do other stuff.